The classic view of Mount Wilbur from the east across Swiftcurrent Lake.
Photo by csmcgranahan

From the south

Overview

Early morning light on Mount Wilbur

The north face of Mount Wilbur

Viewed from the east, Mount Wilbur appears to be a fantastic freestanding fin of rock. In fact, the mountain has a roughly three-sided pyramid shape with relatively wide north and south faces. A long very jagged west ridge extends behind the impressive east face.

There are five described routes on the east face and one on the north face. I do not know if the south face or the west ridge has been climbed.

Mount Wilbur was named in 1885 by G. B. Grinnell , for E. R. Wilbur, one of his partners in the Forest and Stream Publishing Company. Grinnell was one of the pioneers influential in the establishment of Glacier National Park. The mountain was known as "Heavy Shield" by the local Native Americans.

The first ascent of Mount Wilbur was made via the East Face (variation unknown) on 20 August 1923 by Norman Clyde. The first winter ascent was made in late November of 1969 by Jim Anderson, Pat Callis, Jurg Hofer, Mark Levitan, Jim Kanzler, and Cep Pogrebe via the East Face, Thin man and Chimney routes. (CLIMBING MAGAZINE, March-April 1975)

Views from Mount Wilbur

View north from the summit of Mount Wilbur

View NE from Mount Wilbur

View east from Mount Wilbur summit

View S - SW from Mount Wilbur

View northwest from Mount Wilbur

Getting There

Across Swiftcurrent Lake.

Mount Wilbur is located in the Many Glacier area of Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana. Access is through the Many Glacier Entrance on the east side of the Park.

Routes Overview

Because of the nature of the rock, there are special considerations regarding climbing in Glacier National Park, and grading systems unique to the Park have been developed. Please see this Fact Sheet for further details:

All the routes described on Mount Wilbur are day climbs involving about 4,500 feet of elevation gain and distance 4 miles, half of this by trail.

Mount Wilbur from the east.

EAST FACE

The East Face routes are accessed via the Red Rock Falls Trail (see Many Glacier Trails Map: Many Glacier Area).

There seems to be very little difference in difficulty between the five routes on the east face. All are class 4 and 5 chimney or gully climbs. Only the Thin Man's Pleasure Route has an outstanding feature separating it from the others.

The Direct Route, North Couloir Route, and Central Couloir Route are approached by entering the cirque at the base of the East Face and climbing more or less directly up the north side of deepest gully on the face (below the deepest notch at the top of the face). Some fairly difficult climbing including one overhang is encountered on this lower part of the face. The three routes diverge at the base of a red rock band where the face steepens.

1) The Direct Route is a chimney climb directly to a notch at the top of the face via the left fork of the main gully. It is described as a straightforward chimney climb with an overhang at the top.

2) The North Couloir Route follows the right fork of the gully and leads via easy class 3 climbing to a more northerly notch at the top of the face. Class 4 climbing is then necessary to traverse to the summit.

3) The Central Couloir Route ascends between the Direct and North Couloir Routes and involves a couple of pitches with dangerously down sloping holds, but is indicated by Edwards to be the easiest of these three routes.

The Chimney Route and the Thin Man's Pleasure Route are approached over the broad shoulder at the left side of the east face.

4) The Chimney Route follows a deep chimney to a ledge that brings one to the notch at the base of the summit block.

5) The Thin Man's Pleasure Route(GMS IV(5) ML) climbs a chimney next to the Chimney Route. At the top is a an overhanging roof with small hole leading through (see photo below). One climbs through the hole then up a shallow gully to gain the same ledge as the Chimney Route.

The Northwest Face Route is accessed from Iceberg Lake (see Many Glacier Trails map: Many Glacier Area). This is described as an extremely difficult climb involving many overhanging chimney pitches. It was first climbed in 1961 by Tom Choate, Renn Fenton, and Gil Averill and was not known to have been repeated as of 1989.